The War is Over
by drovenmad
Summary: After the crucible fired, there were many races left stranded on Earth, and the crew of the Normandy were missing. How will the Allied forces deal with it, will old tensions flare again? And what became of the greatest hero of the Galaxy?


**AN: **Well this story was inspired by a few things. It was inspired by my love of Mass Effect, the great speech by Admiral Hackett at the end of the extended cut DLC (haven't played it warning Spoliers!) and a fantastic video on youtube called "The War is Over – Mass Effect 3 Tribute" (yes I stole the title... shot me) go watch it.

Just to be clear, I actually liked the ending of Mass Effect 3 (Extended and original) but I probably will still take a few liberties with this story, because I can... no other reason reality.

**Disclaimer: Blah blah blah it is all owned by Bioware and EA... you know the drill**

* * *

Admiral Steven Hackett sorted the position of his bevelled hat, and quickly dusted of his uniform before he walked out onto the pile of slightly flattened rubble that had been quickly fashioned into a podium. In the centre of the pile of rubble was a small wooden podium that one of the soldiers had found, intact, inside a collapsed building. Slowly Hackett walked over to the podium and took his position behind it, as he did the noise of conversation from the large crowd that had gathered in front of it died down to a murmur and finally silence. Admiral Hackett looked out over the sea of people now stating at him, Humans, Turians, Krogan, Salarian, Asari, Vorcha and even some Elcor, some of them still clad in armour and all covered in the grime and dust of this once great city. Off to the sides, and standing on top of some of the larger piles of rubble, and some still intact buildings Hackett could see Camera Drones and their operators, preparing to broadcast this speech to more than just the people that could see it.

From behind him there was the sound of shifting rubble, slowly he turned to see the source of the noise, only to see Primarch Victius, Matriarch Ashera and Urdnot Wrex moving over the pile of rubble and over towards him. The Primarch offered him a small nod of respect, his eyes showing the sorrow he felt despite the victory that had been achieved, the other two simply moved over and took their place at either side of Hackett. Hackett took one last look at the crowd gathered in front of him, before activating the broadcast function on him Omni-tool so that they could all hear him:

"The war is over. The Reapers have been defeated. Against all odds, and in the face of the greatest threat this galaxy has ever known, we survived." Hackett stalled for a second, looking over the faces of the crowd again, the victory had come at a great cost; there was not one person in that crowd who had not been effected by the carnage that the Reapers had caused. "We suffered many losses. The relays are severely damaged, but we won. This victory belongs to each of us... every man, woman, and child. Every civilization, on every world." Again Hackett stalled, clearing his dry throat that was made worse by the amount of dust in the Air, "Now, as we take our first steps toward restoring what we lost, we must remember what it took to win. This was not a victory by a single fleet, a single army, or even a single species. If this war has taught us anything, it is that we are at our strongest when we work together. And if we can put down our grievances long enough to stop something as powerful as the Reapers, imagine what we can achieve now that they are defeated. It will take time, but we can rebuild everything that was destroyed. Our homes, our worlds, our fleets and defences. All of this - and more. Together, we can build a future greater than any one of us could imagine. A future paid for by the sacrifices of those who fought and died alongside us. A future that many will never see. And while we still have many challenges ahead of us... We can face them together. And we will honor those who died to give us that future."

With that Hackett stepped back from the podium, having said his part. The crowd sat in silence, as if they had been expecting more than a simple 'we can do it' speech, but Hackett knew that he was not that good at speeches, and that would simply have to do. Then rising above the rest of the crowd, a single clap radiated throughout the barren area, steadily it clapped and clapped until more and more people began to join. Within minutes, the area was filled with the noise of clapping and even some cheering. It was as if the fact that they had won the greatest war in history had finally hit them, as though they had just realised, that despite all the loss and sacrifice they had done the impossible, they had defeated the Reapers.

"An inspiring speech Admiral," Came the distinctively Turian voice of Primarch Victus barely loud enough for Hackett to hear of the sound of the roaring crowd.

"Nothing like what Shepard could have done." Hackett responded, not even turning to face the Primarch.

"I have been meaning to ask, have you any word on the Normandy?" From the sound of the Asari Matriarch and Urdnot Wrex shifting closer meant that they too were searching for the answer to this question.

"No. We haven't heard anything since the Crucible was activated." Hackett recited the official statement, before adding his own feelings, "But I have not given up hope."

"I don't think Shepard knows how to die, she'll be back," Hackett turned after hearing Wrex's voice, only to see the Krogan walking away. "Till then, we just got to keep looking, bring back the Normandy and you will bring back Shepard."

* * *

Not long after the speech, Hackett was already back at work, coordinating the clean up with the rest of the surviving leaders and the acting leaders in some cases. There was a small team that had been dedicated to search and rescue, but it was not expected to find anything, the Reapers had been very thorough in the extermination of the populace. It was little more than a token force to keep the families still hoping to find a loved one alive under the rubble of Earths once great metropolitan Cities.

The main concern for the collection of the leaders at the moment was food, the Levo based races would be alright, Earth was still capable of producing rations for them, and new areas for quick food preparation were being set up. There was a problem around the Dextro based races of Quarians and Turians, even in its prime Earth had lacked the ability to produce edible food for either of these races and relied heavily on the imports from other worlds. However, with the destruction of the Mass Relays travel time between systems had increased almost hundred fold, ships had been sent, but it would be months before they would return with supplies.

"Our efforts should be focused on repairing the Mass Relay." Prmarch Vitcus roared slamming his fist on one of the very few pieces of still intact furniture they had managed to salvage from the ruined city of London.

"Primarch, I understand your concern but repairing the Mass Relay, whilst a top issue, is not our main concern." Hackett countered the Primarch. He like the Turian well enough, and respected him, but focusing their efforts on the reconstruction of a single Mass Relay would do very little, and more than likely be a waste of their very limited recourses, "But we must understand how to reconstruct it first, so that we can repair others quicker. Otherwise our focus should be on housing, food, water and Healthcare."

"The Admiral is right, teams of the best scientist's available form all races are studying the Mass Relay and hopefully they will soon be able to repair it." Matriarch Ashera concurred, much more confident in her words than Hackett had been however. "We must do what we can for the people until then."

"Yes, I know, it is just hard to see my men struggle."

"I understand Primarch, but we must work together, and we have rations enough to last another few months."

Before Hackett could speak again there was a short knock on the badly damaged door. He nodded to the guards that were standing at the door and they quickly prized it open. On the other side was an Alliance soldier, still wearing his field gear, obviously a member of the search and rescue team. The soldier also seemed to be out of breath and was leaning on the wall next to the door. He looked up as the door was heaved open and gave a quick, if rather sloppy salute.

"What is it son?" Hackett asked, slightly perplexed as to why a member of the search and rescue team was aware of this meeting, never mind actually attending it.

"We... we found her! We found Commander Shepard!"


End file.
